A fundamental requirement of product displays used in retail environment is that they present the product in an aesthetically pleasing and readily accessible manner in order to promote product sales. However, in order to minimize loss or revenue due to shoplifting, product displays should also provide some means of indicating when products have been removed from the display for the purpose of theft rather than for purchase.
Approaches to the problem of shoplifting from product displays include placing the product behind transparent barriers with apertures that are large enough for the human hand but too small to remove a product displayed in the rack. When a consumer chooses a product, he or she is required to request the aid of a salesperson to unlock the transparent barrier and allow removal of the product. The barrier may present an unacceptable aesthetic impression of the product which will result in lost sales. Also, requiring a customer to request assistance in choosing a product will also result in lost sales.
Often, transparent barriers are provided on product displays which allow stacked products to be removed one at a time from the bottom of the stack. The products are removable only through a slot or the like in the transparent barrier aligned with the bottom of the stack of products. Requiring products to be removed only one at a time clearly discourages multiple product purchases.
Other approaches display products on a rack with the products being captured by a slidable retainer or the like. If the slidable retainer is moved without proper authorization, a electrical circuit is interrupted and an alarm is sounded. Once again, this type of display requires intervention of a sales person in order to deactivate the alarm system for legitimate product removal.
The improved product display rack which is the subject of the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 07/245,947 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,015) avoids the above-described problems. The product rack invention of the '947 application is particularly adapted for implementation in large-size product racks which contain large numbers of the same product, such as for example free-standing cigarette carton display racks. However, a need remains for an anti-theft system suitable for small scale product racks such as counter-top product displays and the like. It is especially important, for example, that such a anti-theft system have a minimal height profile, and be otherwise physically configured so as not to detract from the attractiveness and utility of the product display. Other types of small-scale article storage systems, such as, for example, cash register cash drawers, have severe restrictions on the space that can be occupied by a system for monitoring input and removal or articles from the storage system.
It is also common for counter-top product displays, as well as other small-scale article storage systems, such as cash register cash drawers and the like, to hold a number of different products of varying sizes and weights. It is thus necessary for an anti-theft system, or an article input and removal monitoring system for such a product rack or article storage system to be able to detect input/removal of a variety of products with different characteristics.
In addition, small-scale product racks and other article storage systems come in a wide variety of sizes, configurations and capacities, and the same rack/storage system can be used for a wide range of products in many diverse environments. It is thus important that the anti-theft/monitoring system be compatible with, and readily adapted to many different applications and that the system be readily calibrated by the product rack/storage system user for the user's specific use.
Further, anti-theft/monitoring systems for small-scale product displays and other article storage systems should be inexpensive while still providing high resolution with short term repeatability. Such systems should also be modular in construction to permit economical fabrication in various sizes and shapes. Such systems should also be durable and protected against damage due to physical overloading.